Last year I decided to focus on speculative fiction for our assigned reading. One of the final books we read was Hunger Games. I planned out our books for the year over a year earlier, and as we read Hunger Games when the Quarantine was just starting and the kids were finding a lot of parallels between the book and current events. This Hunger Games book club was a great addition to our book and a movie collection.
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Hunger Games
I only required them to read book 1 of the Hunger Games, so all of our snacks and discussion questions are based on the first book. After we finished the book and watched the movie, Superman went on to read the rest of the series, so as he finished the books we watched them. Since it was in the height of the shortages because of Covid, the kids were seeing all sorts of parallels.
Katniss lives in District 12, one of the poorest districts in all of Pan-Am, each year one boy and one girl is chosen from each district to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal fight to the death between teenagers. This year her sister is chosen as tribute and Katniss volunteers to keep her sister safe. Will Katniss survive the Hunger Games, or will she die in the games.
Hunger Games book club discussion
Two things that fascinate me about this series are the mythological allusions, this reminds me of the story of the minotaur and the young people sent off every year as a sacrifice until Theseus defeats the minotaur.
Then there are all of the Roman names in the books.
That’s where most of our discussion came in, picking apart the mythology in the books, the Roman names and why those names were picked, and the ideas behind each district and why oppressive governments choose ideas like that.
But, if you want some more specific questions to talk through:
Both of these sites have great questions to guide you through a discussion. We had more than enough to discuss just talking about what they thought and what they’d read.
Hunger Games snack inspirations
I’m sure y’all are shocked, shocked I say to discover a lot of people put together Hunger Games birthday parties or have Hunger Games inspired snacks.
People who are much better at making attractive-looking snacks than I am. I used them as my inspiration.
- Hunger Games party
- Hunger Games party collection
- Hope is stronger than fear Hunger Games
- Hunger Games districts bread series
Hunger Games snacks
After our great Hunger Games book club discussion and the many cries of outrage from my daughter at the cruelty of the games, we put together an insanely large number of snacks. As you can see from those links up there, you can create a slew of Hunger Games snacks.
- District 12 bread (Mellark bakery)- from the Hunger Games bread recipes
- Nightlock berries- I grabbed a random assortment of berries
- Tessarae- Star Crunch
- District 7 lumber- baked asparagus
- lamb and plum stew- which was really beef stew
- Caesar Flickerman salad- with Caesar dressing of course
- Blood- Big Red
- Bread and Circuses- circus animals
- Hidden Cameras- I’m really not sure why caramel popcorn made me think of hidden cameras
- District 12 coal- whoppers
- Cornucopia- Waffle cone, berries, and ice cream
- Prim’ goat cheese- some goat cheese I picked up from Sprouts
- Katniss roots- fried mini potatoes
- Mutts- shortbread dog cookies (If you want to overpay, you can get them from Amazon, seriously 10x what I pay at my grocery store, but I guess it is 10 boxes, so that’s a little different)
- Girl on Fire balls- Cheeto puff balls
- Haymitch’s alcohol (not pictured)- root beer and cream soda
So, that’s our Hunger Games book and a movie.
More speculative fiction book and a movie nights
We all enjoyed The Hunger Games books. My husband and I also watched movies but A steadfastly refuses to watch them – she says that there are certain things that she is able to read about but doesn’t want to see. I can see why the books (and the movies) were such a hit. Great and compelling read!